when the animals go to war with each other. How does one pick sides? The birds have turned into suicide bombers, and the pigs complain they can no longer go to the market. We may never fully understand the initial cause of the conflict, but in the end, someone will blame Michael Vick. He is an Eagle after all…..and hey, is that a pigskin in his hand?

I’ve lost two old friends in the last three weeks. The first died after a three-month skirmish with pancreatic cancer. I say skirmish because he (and his doctors) truly felt he had a 2-5 year window to battle the his disease. Death overtook him quickly and by surprise. His last words to his wife, “I did not expect to die today”.

My other friend, older than myself, passed away this past Saturday night at age 61 from unexpected heart failure. He uttered no last words, yet ironically, had just e-mailed to me a bucket list of things he still aspired to experience. He was never the spiritual type, but I wonder if he had experienced some form of premonition. I hold this list as his personal goodbye.

Of interest, they were not known to one another, and only recently had we “rediscovered” our friendships after the absence of years. I don’t know what to make of it, or if there is even a common thread for me to follow.

Well, that certainly perked up my ears, as I casually sipped on a latte one table away. After swallowing the hook, I remained a not so unwilling, and curious audience for the balance of the conversation. In a nutshell, this is how it went down. (yes that too)

The initial courting consisted of friending, and heavy facebooking during the course of a week. That evolved into two or three days of sexting followed by a single phone call, and of course the main event. Since the coupling there has been no further contact with our protagonist…….not even a casual facebooking. However, as it turns out, there are comemorative pics circulating the interwebs. Kind of a poor man’s sex tape.

Moral of the story? Neither Kindle nor Nook will ever replace a quiet evening at the bookstore. (BTW The two gossip girls pictured are a sculpture by Ron Mueck)